World Bank

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WASHINGTON: A special inquiry panel has found that World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz breached bank rules in arranging a pay raise and promotion for his girlfriend, media reported here on Tuesday. The bank ethics panel's findings have not been made public but unconfirmed media reports said the beleaguered top World Bank official has been given some 48 hours to respond, a time-frame that has been deemed too short by Wolfowitz's lawyer. The panel has cited "violations" over the manner in which Wolfowitz went about arranging salary and promotion for his girlfriend Shaha Riza in 2005, the reports said.

NEW DELHI: A $69.6-million credit approved by the World Bank earlier this week will benefit 9,200 villages in Uttaranchal. Over a period of seven years, the Uttaranchal Decentralised Watershed Development Project will maximise the potential of natural resources and increase the income of inhabitants in selected watersheds through socially inclusive, institutionally and environmentally sustainable approaches. The project builds on the successful experiences of the Second Integrated Watershed Hills Project, also financed by the World Bank.

WASHINGTON: The World Bank has said that one of its main lending instruments, Adjustment Lending, has been replaced by the new Development Policy Lending in a major overhaul of the Bank's operational policy. The framework unifies policy that applies to a whole range of instruments, including sectoral adjustment loans, structural adjustment loans and poverty reduction support credits, the Bank said in a statement. In addition, it deals with core issues of design, fiduciary arrangements, financing options and dissemination and disclosure, it said.

By D Leipziger & S Pradhan The recent turbulence surrounding the resignation of Paul Wolfowitz from the Presidency of the World Bank has underscored the need to push ahead with the Bank's good governance and anti-corruption agenda. This is necessary not only for the sake of the Bank itself, but, more fundamentally, for the sake of the poor in developing countries, whose access to public services and opportunities for a better life are undermined by weak governance and graft.

LONDON: The World Bank has praised the Left parties for their "broad-based vision" on social sector and infrastructure development and said the UPA government's Common Minimum Programme was in tune with the Bank's objectives. "The Communist leaders I met were at pains to say that they wanted a broad-based movement to bring services to poor people and the bank contributing to infrastructure," World Bank president James D Wolfensohn said in an interview to a London-based financial daily.

The World Bank's stern warning to state governments that embark on populist measures like offering free power may come as a surprise to those accustomed to the Bank's style of functioning. Over the years, the World Bank has learnt (the hard way!) to keep a low profile. Given the sensitivities of populations in developing countries, many of who resent the bank's belt-tightening advice to crises countries and see it as a US agent, Bank officials usually take care not to ruffle feathers.

The announcement of Robert Zoellick as the US nominee to succeed Paul Wolfowitz as the president of the World Bank puts paid to any hope that President George W Bush might heed the call for an overhaul of the selection process. Coming as it does soon after the Bank's board issued a statement late on Tuesday that opened the door to a rival nomination and listing the criteria, the US announcement can only be interpreted as another example of its high-handedness. It's not that competence of the former US deputy secretary of state, better known in India as the former US Trade Representative (USTR)

NEW DELHI: REITERATING his call to developed countries to open up their markets to developing countries, World Bank chief economist and senior VP Nicholas Stern also stressed the importance of unilateral trade reforms by India. In a speech at the National Council for Applied Economic Research in the capital, he said expanded trade had played a significant role in reducing poverty over the past decade. "But (India's) trade barriers are still among the most restrictive in the world, and that hurts poor people in India.

CHENNAI: World Bank on Friday inaugurated its new office building here, one of its largest offices outside Washington, to house its growing financial and technical support services. The bank has decided to expand the office space here after examining the availability of accounting skill, information technology infrastructure, real estate and the Tamil Nadu government's commitment to providing adquate infrastructure, a bank release said. The 1,20,000 square feet facility is on a 3.5 acre plot and has a capacity to house about 450 staff, offering scope for expansion of the bank's current workforce of 240. Inaugurating the office, Chief Minister M Karunanidhi said, "Many high value added activities are now based at Chennai instead of Washington".

NEW DELHI: India today signed a loan agreement worth USD 8 million with World Bank for sustainable livelihoods and adaption to climate change. "A grant agreement for World Bank assistance of USD 8 million for sustainable livelihoods and adaptation to Climate Change (SLACC) Project has been signed between the Government of India and the World Bank," the Finance Ministry said in a statement. The agreement was signed by Joint Secretary (MI) in Ministry of Finance Tarun Bajaj and World Bank's India Country Director Onno Ruhl.